A Typewriter Guerrila In 1969

NK SINGH

Byline in a reputed journal like Frontier firmed up my resolve of joining journalism. 

I was advised to learn typing and shorthand if I wanted to become a reporter. So I joined a typing institute. I could never learn shorthand. But soon enough I was able to type ‘A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’ without looking at the keyboard.

When I could type an article on Bihar election in 1969, without making a single mistake, I was pleased as a punch. 

The difficult part was commuting from my hostel to downtown Ranchi to attend the typing class. My roommates, two brothers who belonged to Katrasgarh royal family, came to my rescue. I would borrow their bicycle and paddle downtown to the typing institute.

The typing classes also solved the problem of getting my articles typewritten by professional typists which was a costly affair. Almost all publications would accept articles for publication only if they were typewritten in double space.

By the time I migrated to Patna University later, I was lucky to  acquire helpful friends like Bhushan Marwaha, the bureau chief of UNI at Patna. He would allow me to use his office typewriters and also correct my copies.

It was only much later, after I joined Nai Dunia at Indore in 1976, that I could acquire a typewriter of my own. I lugged around the bulky Remington Portable (price Rs 1,725) for several years. The fragile machine travelled with me all over Madhya Pradesh during my Indian Express stint.

In case you want to read the piece on Bihar election in The Frontier, please click here.

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